Comments

1
You're right Jen,
It doesn't always go like that. And when it doesn't, a C-section can save two lives. The three people I love most in the world are all around today thanks to C-sections.
2
Please think critically about this topic. Homebirth is dangerous and can be deadly, with a higher rate of death when compared to hospital birth.

Things can go wrong very quickly and appropriate medical care can mean the difference between life and death, or lifelong disability.

Midwives cannot provide that are in a home or "farm" setting. They know this, but continue to promote risky home births because it is their livelihood.

Check out this blog, by a Harvard trained obstetrician, for more on homebirth and midwives: http://www.skepticalob.com/
3
http://www.washingtonmidwives.org/for-hc…

Birth is an inherently risky process. What is interesting is the RISE of the maternal mortality rate in our country in recent decades, along with the increase in medical interventions. Something to think critically about.

Of course medical technology saves lives when needed, and it can be dangerous and risky when over used.
4
Oops. Here is a link to research, and many peer reviewed articles, on birth outcomes.
http://www.washingtonmidwives.org/for-hc…
5
There are many good compromises between the unsupported home birth and the hospital birth experience. My daughter was born at a birth center a block from a hospital with nurse-midwives in attendance. Emergency medical care was very close at hand, but the birth center was a very home-like and comfortable place.
6
I'm 100% for the rise of midwives if it means that birth is looked at more as a natural process and not a medical emergency. That being said, I am deeply in debt to the nurse-midwives at Swedish in Ballard for bridging the gap between low-interference pregnancy and birth and "GET ME THE FUCKING EPIDURAL" with grace and empathy. The emotional connection to the women who helped me give birth seems to be more common to women who've worked with midwives. I went through the scariest thing possible with trained people I trusted.

That being said, I'm a healthy c-section kid, so is my brother, and so are many of my kid's playmates. I think what's more important is that people stop judging women for how they give birth and be more supportive of pre- and post-natal support programs, both private, public, and in the workplace.
7
Jen, this is a great review, simple and informative. And, nobody's denouncing emergency C-sections. They have their place. But, it is undeniable that their usage and medical intervention has been overused in the U.S., which has ACTUALLY increased the maternal mortality rate.

@2: how many children do you have? Where did you deliver your children ex-hospital, etc.? And, FYI- your stats aren't backed by reality (''Homebirth can be deadly''). The rest of the world and their live birth rates/maternal death rates disagree with you.

Do more research, like stats from the W.H.O., the movie 'The Business of Being Born', 'Pushed', and then you can choose to do whatever you like with your vagina.

And, um, @1: I'm happy that your family was saved by an emergency procedure.
Again, no one's denying that c-secs have a place in medicine. And, you can do whatever you want with your vagina, as well. What? You don't have one? Oh, then here's my next suggestion:PLEASE STAY OUT OF THE CONVERSATION OF WHAT WOMEN ''SHOULD'' DO WITH THEIR BODIES. I'm getting damn tired of guys thinking, for some strange reason, that they have any place in the argument of women and their bodies, including birth, including c-sections.
8
@7: I was the first commenter on this thread, and wasn't aware that I WAS in an argument about what women should do with their bodies, until I stopped back in here some days later. I'm guessing, and correct me if I'm getting this wrong, that you've been involved in one or more comment threads that are about exactly that, verbal tussles with vaginaless commenters who wanted to tell you what to do, and you arrived here ready to do battle, assuming this one is just a seamless continuation of those nasty threads.

But since you've called me out: I'll admit that, both times my wife was in labor, I DID feel pretty invested in what happened both to mother and child, and participated in the conversation (not really "argument") of what should happen next, as the labor proceeded. Creepy, no?
9
@7: by the way -- I looked up your profile, and just wanted to add that as many times as I've read "Masquerade", I think I had even more requests for "Afternoon in Park".
10
Christ, all the woman said was she'd like to see the rate of C-sections reduced. Isn't that something we should all be behind? They are done far too often by doctors not wanting to miss their golf game and mothers who want to avoid labor or keep their twats snappy (I know one woman, a breast cancer doctor, who insisted on a C0section from the git-go, but she was a control freak). Sometimes they're neccessary, oftentimes not.
11
Christ, all the woman said was she'd like to see the rate of C-sections reduced. Isn't that something we should all be behind? They are done far too often by doctors not wanting to miss their golf game and mothers who want to avoid labor or keep their twats snappy (I know one woman, a breast cancer doctor, who insisted on a C-section from the git-go, but she was a control freak). Sometimes they're neccessary, oftentimes not.
12
Damn. Sorry about the double-post, was trying to fix a typo.
13
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14
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15
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